An interesting, horrifying incident happened in Russia’s Rostov Region on which a bear bit off the hand of a 5-year old girl. The story that leads to the accident, according to the mother, was that her child was just helping on her job when her daughter requested to get her picture taken in front of a caged bear to show off her friends. The cage of the bear was surrounded with a metallic grid with an aperture size of 89 cm by 74 cm to allow approach on the animal. A while later, the bear attacked the girl and when the mother tried to pull her away, it was too late, the bear was already chewing on the hand. With the help of the center’s visitors, the girl was rushed to the hospital. The girl was rushed to the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) and spent several days in the hospital. She is now in stable condition.

During the interviews, a series of pin pointing developed.

The mother said that, “A bear, when full, would never touch a child,” blaming the center for not feeding the bear.

The father, on the other hand, blamed the village authorities of Melihovo for not providing enough kindergarten centers. If they were able to afford the kindergarten programs, according to him, his daughter would have been at school instead in her mother’s place of work.

The recreation center, however blamed the mother, to who, they stated, should have been more attentive to her daughter and that if she would have been more responsible, the incident would have never happened. They also believe the girl was the one who put her hand on the bear’s mouth, trying to feed it.

The investigators has launched a criminal case on this incident under the article ‘Providing of services not complying with safety requirements that led by inadvertency to grievous bodily harm’. If proven that the recreation center did not qualify for safety requirements, the owner of the center could spent 6 years in prison.

They are also investigating whether or not it is legal for them to keep a wild animal within the perimeters of the center.